HDA Scholars - seventh cohort

Rosa Virgara
Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity; School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia
Supervisors: A/Prof Carol Maher (primary), UniSA; Dr Anna Philips, UniSA; Dr Lucy Lewis, Flinders University and Ms Mandy Richardson, Out of School Hours Care Association of SA (OSHCsa)

PhD Project:Physical activity, screen-time and wellbeing in Out of School Hours Services: how can we provide better programs for Australian children?. This project aims to develop and implement national guidelines for physical activity and screen time in OSHC programmes through the following stages: bring together a panel of experts from a variety of sectors including OSHC directors, members of peak national bodies, representatives from state education departments and expert researchers in child development and physical activity; to develop national guidelines for physical activity and recreational screen time in OSHC; develop an intervention program aimed to assist OSHC services to implement the guidelines; and conduct a pilot randomised control trial to determine the intervention program’s feasibility and effectiveness for improving physical activity and screen behaviours.

Fan Jia
School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia
Supervisors: Prof John Hayball (primary), UniSA; Dr Kerrilyn Diener, University of Adelaide and Dr Tamara Cooper & Dr Preethi Eldi, UniSA

PhD Project:Application of a new vaccine technology to protect children against multiple diseases painlessly and economically. This project will investigate using a new multiplication-defective vaccinia virus named, the Sementis Copenhagen Vector (SCV) as a vaccine platform to provide protective immunity against multiple diseases in a single-component vaccine. Multi-disease, single component vaccines offer improvements that will make manufacturing more economical and vaccination compliance achievable.

PhD Project: Effects of pro-inflammatory conditions of pregnancy on cortical physiology and neuroendocrine function in children and adolescents.
This project aims to explore the effects of pro-inflammatory disorders of pregnancy on neuroendocrine function and cortical physiology in children and adolescents, and to further characterise the interactions between specific hormones and cortical synaptic plasticity, using non-invasive brain stimulation, immunohistochemical techniques, and functional assessments.

PhD Project:Can the Dietary Guideline Index (DGI) for Children and Adolescence be used as an effective monitoring and feedback intervention?. The Dietary Guideline Index (DGI; a reliable and valid measure of children's diet quality) suggests Australian children are not adhering to the dietary guidelines. Thus, it is essential to continue using this index as a monitoring and surveillance tool, to inform and evaluate interventions that focus on improving children's eating habits.

PhD Project: Designing, evaluating, and utilising a holistic measure of adolescent stress. This project aims to design and evaluate a neutral measure of adolescent stress that encompasses the positive and negative aspects of the construct. This novel measure will then be utilised to examine the role of stress in adolescents’ psychological and academic success.

PhD Project: Databases of physical activity in Australian children: an audit, an online repository, and recommendations on survey instruments.
Working towards a standardised national survey system, this study aims to compile previous data collected on children's physical activity into an easily accessible online database, and establish which instruments provide the most valid and reliable responses.